6 Truths About Technology in Education I recently had the opportunity to Keynote the University of Pennsylvania Literacy Network’s Winter Symposium. Penn Literacy Network founder Mort Botel (who was also a former President of the International Reading Association) wrote one of the most influential works in my teaching career, “The Plainer Truths of Teaching/Learning/Assessing Across the Curriculum“; and with his passing this past year, I hoped to honor him in this address by framing my talk around the Truths of Technology in Education. Truth #1 is the reason we educate students. It’s for their benefit. But, it only matters to our students when they own the learning. When we give students choice, allow for inquiry, and foster creativity–then we see the amazing things they can do. Truth #2 comes from a quote I first heard Tom Murray say on stage, “Every child in your class is someone else’s whole world.” Truth #3 is all about the story. Truth #6 is something all of us know who work in education. Awesome!
OSLA - Central Auditory Processing Auditory Processing can be understood as the link between the ears and the brain. Both children and adults can be affected by difficulties understanding what is heard, despite normal hearing and normal intelligence. This difficulty impacts the ability of the child or adult to function in everyday life. Our ears detect sound; the brain gives these sounds meaning An auditory processing disorder (APD) is a disruption of sound along the pathway from the ear to the brain, which interferes with understanding. The ears do not work alone to decipher incoming information- the brain has its own part to play. A Team of Professionals Must be Involved in the Diagnosis Signs of an Auditory Processing Disorder Who can be tested for APD? Almost any child aged 7 or older can be tested for APD. What will my child be expected to do? The tests for APD simply seek to discover what a child hears when sounds enter the auditory system. Therapy There is no “one size fits all” therapy approach. Next Steps
Three Good Ways to Use All Those Pictures Students Take Take a look at almost any student's cell phone and you're bound to find hundreds or thousands of pictures and videos that they taken. As teachers we should put our students' picture-taking and video-taking habits to good use. There are three ways to utilize students' picture-taking habits in your classroom. Create a b-roll gallery. Create digital portfolios of physical work. Tell a story. Are you trying to get students to tell stories about themselves? Storehouse, Adobe Slate, Thematic, and Pic-Collage are all good options for telling stories with pictures.
As a teacher, what support can I get for using the devices my student brings to the classroom? | Australian Hearing Teachers are committed to educating and supporting their students. However, most teachers will be unfamiliar with the technology that a student with hearing loss brings to the classroom. Students with hearing loss need special support if they are to maximise hearing and achieve their academic potential. For all the technological advances of recent years, hearing aids and cochlear implants do not give ‘normal hearing’ to a student with hearing loss. Listening conditions have a much greater impact on a student with hearing loss than on other students. Clearly, listening conditions will rarely be this good in a classroom or other learning environment. However, there are solutions that minimise background noise and boost your student’s existing hearing devices. The following short videos dramatically demonstrate the difficulties for students with hearing loss and the impact of remote microphone (FM) technology: How does remote microphone technology work? Some helpful features
An education for the 21st century means teaching coding in schools **The Edvocate is pleased to publish guest posts as way to fuel important conversations surrounding P-20 education in America. The opinions contained within guest posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of The Edvocate or Dr. Matthew Lynch Leon Sterling, Swinburne University of Technology Bill Shorten’s recent announcement that, if elected, a Labor Government would “ensure that computer coding is taught in every primary and secondary school in Australia” has brought attention to an increasing world trend. Estonia introduced coding in primary schools in 2012 and the UK followed suit last year. There is merit in school students learning coding. There is also a strong case to be made that Australia’s future prosperity will depend on delivering advanced services and digital technology, and that programming will be essential to this end. Being introduced to coding gives students an appreciation of what can be built with technology. Drag and drop
This Man Invented a Font to Help People With Dyslexia Read A new typeface is making life easier for people everywhere who live with dyslexia. Christian Boer, 33, is a Dutch graphic designer who created the font that makes reading easier for people, like himself, who have dyslexia, according to his website. Now, he’s offering it to people for free. The typeface is called “Dyslexie,” and Boer first developed it as a final thesis project when he was a student at the Utrecht Art Academy in the Netherlands. The font makes reading easier for people with dyslexia by varying the letter shapes more, making it harder to confuse similarly shaped letters like “b” and “d,” for example. Dyslexia is a language-based processing disorder resulting in a learning disability often characterized by difficulties with accurate word recognition, decoding and spelling, according to the National Center for Learning Disabilities. Research suggests that about 17 percent of the population has dyslexia, according to PBS. We face disabilities and diseases together.
User Generated Education | Education as it should be – passion-based. 5. Pre-assessment Ideas - Differentiation & LR Information for SAS Teachers “Assessment is today’s means of modifying tomorrow’s instruction.” Carol Ann Tomlinson Pre-assessment provides valuable information about what is already known about a topic and readiness to start new instruction. Here are some other pre-assessment methods to consider: Anticipation journals Drawing related to topic or contentGame activitiesGraphic organizersGuess BoxInformational surveys/Questionnaires/InventoriesInitiating activitiesJournalsPicture InterpretationPortfolio analysisPredictionQuestioning (consider using Costa's Levels of Questioning - an AVID technique)Self-evaluationsShow of hands to determine understandingStandardized test informationStudent demonstrations and discussionsStudent interviewsStudent products and work samplesTeacher observation/checklistsTeacher prepared testsWriting prompts/samples
60 Things Students Can Create To Demonstrate What They Know 60 Things Students Can Create To Demonstrate What They Know by Ryan Schaaf, Notre Dame of Maryland University When I was a high school student, I had the privilege of having a wonderful English teacher. She was kind, often helped her students, and created a wonderful classroom environment that was rare in my high school experience. To this day, I regard her as a great educator; one of the very best. As I now reflect upon her and my learning experiences fondly, I had only one criticism – I did the same type of work day in and day out. Nowadays, many educators use the same methods over and over again in their lessons for students to express themselves and demonstrate their new knowledge. Below is a diverse list adapted from resources found at fortheteachers.org of potential student products or activities learners can use to demonstrate their mastery of lesson content. 60 Things Students Can Create To Demonstrate What They Know 60 Things Students Can Create To Demonstrate Understanding
Digital Reporting Digital reporting tools are not seen to improve student instruction or assessment but have had a significant negative impact on teacher work, according to teachers and principals surveyed in a new Alberta study. Researchers from the University of Alberta and the Alberta Teachers’ Association surveyed over 1,000 teachers and conducted focus groups with teachers and administrators as part of a study on digital reporting and assessment tools being released today. Nearly two-thirds of teachers reported that digital reporting tools, like PowerSchool and TeacherLogic, have not improved the level of instruction and assessment in classrooms. This study found that digital reporting tools are inflexible and have been mandated on teachers with very little consultation and poor provisioning of professional development and technological support. - Dr Jason Daniels, University of Alberta - Mark Ramsankar, ATA President
5 Tips for Teaching Digital Citizenship in the Elementary Classroom -- THE Journal Digital Citizenship 5 Tips for Teaching Digital Citizenship in the Elementary Classroom While we shouldn't stop teaching children how to say "please" and "thank you," and bullies will still exist in the face-to-face world, it is vital that we treat online safety and digital citizenship with the same amount of seriousness and attention. By Mary Beth Hertz04/18/12 As elementary level teachers, we are charged not just with teaching academics, but with teaching students social skills as well: "Ignore bullies and tell an adult if you feel threatened,'" "Don't talk to strangers," "Treat people the way you want to be treated." You're probably familiar with phrases similar to these if you teach the younger grades. But when was the last time you talked to your students about how to use good manners while leaving a comment on a blog post? These are the new citizenship skills for our students. The growing trend of schools banning and blocking social media sites and mobile devices frightens me.
Six Ways To Motivate Students To Learn Scientific research has provided us with a number of ways to get the learning juices flowing, none of which involve paying money for good grades. And most smart teachers know this, even without scientific proof. 1. Fine-tune the challenge. We’re most motivated to learn when the task before us is matched to our level of skill: not so easy as to be boring, and not so hard as to be frustrating. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. For more about the science of learning, go to AnnieMurphyPaul.com
The 8 Minutes That Matter Most I am an English teacher, so my ears perk up when writers talk about their process. I've found the advice handy for lesson planning, too. That's because both writing and planning deal with craft. In writing, you want your audience to be absorbed. John Irving, the author of The Cider House Rules, begins with his last sentence: I write the last line, and then I write the line before that. That is the crux of lesson planning right there -- endings and beginnings. The eight minutes that matter most are the beginning and endings. Here are eight ways to make those eight minutes magical. Beginnings 1. YouTube reaches more 18- to 34-year-olds than any cable channel. 2. If you want to create a safe space for students to take risks, you won't get there with a pry bar. 3. Toss a football around the class before you teach the physics of a Peyton Manning spiral. 4. Kelly Gallagher says that students should write four times as much as a teacher can grade. Endings 1. 2. 3. 4.